Copyright Laws

[Mewtwo93]

I need some information on some copyright infringement. I want to write a story a continuation of a story that has been on here since 2011 without any updates. I want to give the author the credit due but I'm only using her world. Can anyone give me some advice?

 

[sr71plt]

Get her written permission (and a good idea would be to have her e-mail permission to Laurel from her Lit. account when you are ready to submit it), or don't do it. Her not responding to you wouldn't be evidence of giving permission.

 

[Mewtwo93]

Is there a better way to contact her then through the contact email?

 

[sr71plt]

Not likely, but perhaps someone reading this thread will know her and how to contact her.

 

[Nezhul]

What you are about to do is called fan fiction. As long as you do it for free - it is not regulated by any laws, AFAIK. Also the original is free as well, and its not really protected at all ATM. Not in USA, not unless it is registered.

Legally i believe you can do whatever the heck you want. Even go as far as take their characters and pervert them. The rest is the question of courtesy, not copyright. How far do you want to go to get the permission that you dont really need and that will serve only to ease your cosciousness.

 

[sr71plt]

A. No, that isn't fan fiction. B. It depends on what it does with the work on whether it's legal or not. That hasn't been established here. C. There is a history here of the original author complaining and the story (and sometimes the account) being pulled. Copyright is not necessarily the controlling issue at this Web site. This hasn't been added to for over six years. That's a pretty clear indication that the author has it the way she wants it--unless contacting her establishes that she'd like to see how someone else would continue it.

 

[Mewtwo93]

Haha! Savage! I still want to get the story published on Lit...and to do that...I have to follow the rules. I have tried contacting her and that didn't work. So now I'm stuck....It is fanfic but....does it still count when I use her characters and "continue" their story pass the point where she stopped?

 

[Mewtwo93]

Let me make this clear, lol I DO NOT want to change her world in any way. I want to take her base characters that she stoped at and continue with them with my own story. Only use her world and character names.

 

[sr71plt]

What can I say? I tried to give you the clearest take on the policy here that I could.

 

[Mewtwo93]

Most likely I will not continue with it. Which is sad because her world is so rich. But....I am a writer and I would hate if someone tried to steal my world. Plus I love Lit and I don't want to be banned. So.....it is what it is.

 

[SimonDoom]

What you are about to do is called fan fiction. As long as you do it for free - it is not regulated by any laws, AFAIK. Also the original is free as well, and its not really protected at all ATM. Not in USA, not unless it is registered.

Legally i believe you can do whatever the heck you want. Even go as far as take their characters and pervert them. The rest is the question of courtesy, not copyright. How far do you want to go to get the permission that you dont really need and that will serve only to ease your cosciousness.

This isn't the law. Fan fiction is just as much subject to copyright law as anything else. There is no legal authority that says that fan fiction falls outside the scope of copyright law. It may or may not be a fair use, but you can't assume it is just because it's fan fiction.

As has been discussed on other threads in the AH before, the realistic prospects for enforcing copyright on this site are, probably, pretty small. I'm not questioning that. But that's not the same thing as saying one has a legal right to do "whatever the heck you want" with someone else's story on this site. You don't.

Writing a sequel to someone's story, using the same creative elements of that story, including names, character traits, and plot elements, is, presumptively, an infringement of the author's exclusive right to prepare derivative works of his or her copyrighted work. You should get permission from the author before doing it.

Here's a pretty good summary of some of the interesting cases concerning fan fiction. The gist: don't make any automatic assumptions about what you can and cannot do (legally -- I'm not talking about the practical aspects of what you can and cannot get away with on this site) in fan fiction. http://www.trademarkandcopyrightlaw...s-every-fan-fiction-writer-should-know-about/

 

[SimonDoom]

Let me make this clear, lol I DO NOT want to change her world in any way. I want to take her base characters that she stoped at and continue with them with my own story. Only use her world and character names.

It's impossible to say for sure in the abstract, but if you borrow the names, character traits, the world, and plot elements (continuing the past story), that sounds like copyright infringement. The way you describe it, it would not be a parody, or a criticism, or any other sort of fair use.

 

[RejectReality]

While most everyone else is talking around in circles, here's the single relevant point.

Laurel rejects stories that continue existing Lit stories or utilize characters/settings from existing Lit stories unless permission from the original author is provided. If you try to slip it past and someone reports it, it will then be rejected after the fact.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Most likely I will not continue with it. Which is sad because her world is so rich. But....I am a writer and I would hate if someone tried to steal my world. Plus I love Lit and I don't want to be banned. So.....it is what it is.

"I would hate if someone tried to steal my world."

Exactly. Yet you considered doing just that....

This topic comes around on a regular basis and there is always a ton of fun about copyright and legality blah blah blah, but less consideration of the ethics of it all. Write your own world, solves the problem.

 

[Hypoxia]

While most everyone else is talking around in circles, here's the single relevant point.

Laurel rejects stories that continue existing Lit stories or utilize characters/settings from existing Lit stories unless permission from the original author is provided. If you try to slip it past and someone reports it, it will then be rejected after the fact.

This is exactly right. LIT is a private site that doesn't seem to attract copyright sharks. But Laurel rules. She makes the determinations. Poach someone else's universe without permission and she'll shoot you down. That's how it works here.

This topic comes around on a regular basis and there is always a ton of fun about copyright and legality blah blah blah, but less consideration of the ethics of it all. Write your own world, solves the problem.

Or, at the very least, transform the stolen universe. Change names. Think about Captain Quirk leading the starship Intercourse as she thrusts through the galaxy, crewed by Commander Smock, Chief Scooty, Lieutenant Ubangi, Dr Macabre, etc. "She's DEAD, Jim! This'll be fun!"

 

[jezzaz]

This is exactly right. LIT is a private site that doesn't seem to attract copyright sharks. But Laurel rules. She makes the determinations. Poach someone else's universe without permission and she'll shoot you down. That's how it works here.

Well, mostly. It depends on who you are. FinishTheDamnStory does it all the time (or used to, before one of the two of them died) but they do have very specific situations which Laural appears to let by - mostly when the story has been abandoned for at least five years, and repeated attempts to contact the author have failed.

But it's very hit or miss and it's Laurals ball of wax, so whatever she says goes, regardless of what you or I may feel about that.

 

[Nezhul]

I'll just tell you that.

Google Harry Potter fanfiction and then see how many stories are there that feature the same characters and the setting. Some are parody, but some others are not. They are spin-offs or even alternate plot lines. Some are written arguably better than the originals (esp. considering JR's writing is not really a top-notch one). Some will be porn featuring Hermione with the entire faculty and lots of perversion.

Now think, how many of this stuff the author can (if she wants) to shut out. I'll tell you the answer - none. Even if she tried. If those works turned any kind of profit - she could demand a cut from this profit, but she can't punish a free author in any way and has no ability to have an offending story removed.
And I will even tell you another fun stuff - no matter how demented it is, she wouldn't want to shut it down and have it removed. Because it's publicity. It brings attention to the original.

Of course that doesn't change that Laurel makes the rules here. If she doesn't like fan fiction and spin-offs - everything above is a moot point.

 

[sr71plt]

This thread should have stopped along about #13/15, but these copyright threads always settle on the answer and then folks who don't know what they're talking about always start confusing it all again with misinformation.

 

[Darkniciad]

Another note: A single episode of — for lack of a better term "fanfic" — isn't grounds for more than a story rejection. The same pretty much holds true for all forms of content rejections. I suppose if you kept repeatedly trying to post banned material, you could get yourself in trouble, but people get rejected a half dozen times for content and are still here, posting stories that are within bounds.

A ban for content rejections is something you're going to have to work at, not stumble into.

The only thing that gets authors swiftly banned from the story side is direct copying of someone's work and claiming it as your own. Actual plagiarism.

 

[CarlusMagnus]

Well, mostly. It depends on who you are. FinishTheDamnStory does it all the time (or used to, before one of the two of them died) but they do have very specific situations which Laural appears to let by - mostly when the story has been abandoned for at least five years, and repeated attempts to contact the author have failed.

But it's very hit or miss and it's Laurals ball of wax, so whatever she says goes, regardless of what you or I may feel about that.

So it seems like the answer to the OP's question is clear: Send a PM to Laurel making your case for what you want to do and ask, politely, whether she'll allow it or not.

 

[Mewtwo93]

Thank you all for you imput. I messaged her and I was told I am allowed to as long as I put in the header that the world and characters belong to the author. But that if the author finds it later on and does not wish for it to be up they will be taken down immediatly. Ta da, should have done that in the first place.

 

[Quiet_Cool]

Thank you all for you imput. I messaged her and I was told I am allowed to as long as I put in the header that the world and characters belong to the author. But that if the author finds it later on and does not wish for it to be up they will be taken down immediatly. Ta da, should have done that in the first place.

That there's what they call "compromise."

Q_C